Episode 222 - Crickets

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HostsMelissa Ellis Oliver Spake

Roving reportersMark Scarborough Oliver Spake

GuestTony O'Connell

Show notes

From the Facebook post

This week the tables are turned with Olly taking the adventuring lead

Meanwhile, Marvellous Mark

dropped into Coombs (opens in a new tab) parkrun to check out their new course plus a familiar voice joins us in the studio to give the low down on palm21 plans

From the podcast feed

This week the tables are turned with Olly taking the adventuring lead. Listen in to hear where his World Cup decision making took him and Hannah. Meanwhile, Marvellous Mark dropped into Coombs (opens in a new tab) parkrun to check out their new course plus a familiar voice joins us in the studio to give the low down on palm 21 plans.

Guest

Roving reports

1·2Wagga and Coombs

In this episode

• Welcome starts at 0:24

  Ollie Spake hosting with Melissa Ellis, Mel recording from her control room in Victoria and Ollie from Shellharbour Central with rattling garage doors. Victoria's snap lockdown meant Ellis Palaceparkrun was relaunched with a Valentine's theme, Daryl in Zoe's red 50 shirt bearing flowers, on Mel's seventh parkrun anniversary, followed by a scones-and-pancakes brunch with Paul and Zoe. Ollie skipped Shellharbour's third new Run Director in a row to go elsewhere with Hannah and record his first roving report, which follows.

• Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew starts at 6:07

  Ollie's first-ever roving report, played from tape: a car-ride segment with his daughter Hannah on the way over Macquarie Pass while they pick an event using the family "World Cup decision-making process" (Riverbank, Gundagai, Gungahlin, Wagga Bridge and Queanbeyan were the contenders), then on-site interviews at Wagga Bridge parkrun with event/Run Director Ian, trail-running couple Kate and Nick, and Tony and Wendy, a couple who have moved away from Mount Barker (SA). Hannah, who had not run a parkrun in almost a year, finished 47th; Ollie was around the top ten. Bookended in the studio by Mel quizzing Ollie on the World Cup process and on forgetting to look for the event's troll.

• Roving reports & the Channel 5 News crew starts at 24:41

  Mark ("marvellous Mark") reports from Coombs parkrun in the Molonglo Valley, western Canberra - event number 114, launched March 2018, average 98 finishers. He interviews Mel from Running Mums Australia, whose members had taken over every volunteer role that morning; regular Terry, who attended the pre-trial event; Jeff, a Gungahlin Run Director visiting the new course; and Coombs Event Director Tim, on the event's third course in three years and on consulting other park users through the changes.

• the Informant starts at 37:01

  Anonymous unofficial-stats segment. No event launches worldwide that week and all Victorian events cancelled by the COVID lockdown; 338 events worldwide, 299 in Australia and New Zealand, 37,355 participants (down about 13,500), 5,572 PBs, 1,986 first-timers, and 50/100/250 milestone counts. New statespeople listed for the ACT, NT and New Zealand, plus Most Aussie/NZ Events movers. The feature is a Wilson Index comparison by state - highest per state and state averages - prompted by forum talk, with a dig at Ollie's own index. Sign-off: "my spreadsheet is bigger than yours."

• Emails starts at 43:50

  Listener Pippa White writes in with an alternative to "Aotearoan" as the demonym for someone who has completed every New Zealand event: "New Sealander", a play on having seen the whole country. The hosts now have two options and plan a listener poll, hampered by Facebook pages not supporting polls.

• Sign-off starts at 59:36

  Mel thanked TOC, said she could not wait for palm21 to roll around, and asked Ollie his plans for the weekend: he will miss Shellharbour for the annual family holiday at Lake Conjola on the New South Wales south coast, revisiting one of the south coast favourites. Mel's plan A is Fair Park Reserve, where she would meet her mum, with a themed Ellis Palace parkrun as plan B if Victoria's restrictions hold. Ollie wished good news to everyone still in lockdown, asked listeners to keep the correspondence coming at parkrunadventurers at gmail.com (including tips on setting up a Facebook poll), Mel said that was it for another pod, and they told everyone to take care and said they would see them next week.